


Lost in the Fog: Through the Looking Glass

by Ginny305



Series: Lost in the Fog [2]
Category: CSI:NY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: story_arc, Dimension Travel, M/M, Multi, What-If, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-13
Updated: 2010-09-13
Packaged: 2017-10-11 18:09:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/115386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ginny305/pseuds/Ginny305
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don wants to know what the fog is and what it does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost in the Fog: Through the Looking Glass

**Author's Note:**

> This is part 2 of the story arc challenge. Ten standalone parts of this series.

Title: Lost in the Fog: Through the Looking Glass  
Author: Ginny  
Fandom: CSI:NY  
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing for a little bit while the fandom bunnies are still talking to me.  
Pairing: Mac/Danny/Don  
Warnings: AU  
Rating: FRT  
Challenge: [profile] story_arc  
Prompt: Ball  
Summary: Don wants to know what the Fog is and what it does.  
Author's Notes: This is part 2 of the story arc challenge. Ten standalone parts of this series. Many, many, many thanks to Dee, Mer and especially Kathie, who kept poking and refused to forget this one. Thank you for the betaing the cheerleading and making sure that this still made sense.

~*~*~

"Sit over there," Mac ordered the man as he pointed to the chair in front of his desk. He nodded in satisfaction when the man obeyed him despite being confused and lost. "Don't move," he instructed and stepped from the room.

"What are you thinkin' Mac?" Danny asked softly. His hands were jammed in his pockets and he was watching the man sitting in Mac's office. "Do you think he's one of them?"

"Shh," Mac hissed, looking around. Confident that they were alone he said, "I don't know. Maybe."

"Probably," Danny insisted, chewing his lower lip. "He knows things that no one could know unless..." he trailed off.

"I know," Mac agreed, looking troubled.

"I thought we'd seen the last of this," Danny muttered as he started to pace. He pushed his glasses up and rubbed at his eyes. "We were supposed to be done dealin' with this stuff."

"I had hoped," Mac murmured in agreement.

"What are we going to do?"

"Same thing we always do, deal with it and make sure no one else finds out."

~*~*~

"Tell me what's going on!" Don demanded, jumping to his feet as Mac and Danny walked into the room.

"Sit down Don," Mac ordered. "We'll try to explain, but it's complicated."

"The DNA test come back?" Don asked. "You believe I'm who I say."

"It did, but we believe you anyway," Danny told him. "We've met you before."

"How? You said I was dead." Don shook his head in confusion. "Where the hell am I?"

"You are dead," Mac told him calmly. "In this universe, you're dead." He sighed slightly. "It's a long story."

Don laughed humorlessly. "It's not like I have anywhere else to be, " he pointed out.

After a brief staring contest to decide who would explain, Mac started. "You're from a parallel universe," he said bluntly, having learned long before to get straight to the point. "The fog you were in, it acts as a gateway between universes."

"A gateway between universes," Don repeated. He wanted to be skeptical. He wanted to believe that this was one big joke, but he couldn't.

Part of the reason was that it was instinctive to believe Mac. But most of it was because the two men standing in front of him looked identical to his lovers, but they weren't them. They weren't his Mac and Danny. They looked just like his, but there were minor differences. The way they talked, walked and even their smiles were just a little different. But, most of all, the way they looked at him was wrong. That, more than anything else, made him believe what they were telling him.

"Yes," Mac said simply in confirmation.

"How?"

Danny laughed. "It's complicated. Dr. Hawkes is the one that will have to explain it – just make sure his assistant, Marty, is there to translate."

"You don't know how it works?" Don asked with a slight frown.

"I know that it works and I get how, but the physics behind? Dr. Hawkes is the expert," Danny shrugged. "I know enough to do my job."

"What is your job?"

"CSI," Danny shrugged.

Don snorted. "Try again," he scoffed. "You're more than that."

"Where's your proof?" Mac inquired.

"Stella's a CSI too and she doesn't know about this gateway stuff. You said a set of codewords and she immediately dropped her questions. She wasn't happy, but she did. This is somethin' that not everyone knows about and you keep it that way," Don answered, meeting their gaze firmly, daring them to tell him he was wrong.

"You're right," Mac confirmed. "We're TSIs, temporal scene investigators. We investigate and clean up things like this."

"Now what?" Don asked, resisting the urge to get up and pace.

"What do you mean now what?" Danny asked.

"What are you gonna do with me?" Don asked bluntly, meeting their gazes. "You just told me that it's your job to clean up this mess. Does that mean you're gonna get rid of me?"

"Nah," Danny smirked. "We like Don Flacks, we'll let you live."

Don laughed, relaxing at seeing the same sense of humor he'd see in his own Danny. "Can you get me home?"

"That's easier said than done," Mac told him after a few seconds.

"You're sure you don't want to go talk to Dr. Hawkes?" Danny asked hopefully.

"Can I get home or not?"

"Maybe," Mac answered. He walked over to the wall behind his desk and pressed his hand against a brick. Don watched in surprise as a console lit up, scanning his palm before opening a hidden door. Mac opened it and reached into the compartment, pulling out a small ball. He held it out to Don. "This is an Upalong."

"A whatalong?" Don asked in complete confusion.

"An Upalong," Mac said again. "It tells you when the Fog is coming and, if given enough information, can guide you between universes."

Don eyed the ball skeptically. "That little thing does that?"

Danny chuckled. "I love it when they react like this," he told Mac. "There's just no faking the complete disbelief and confusion."

Mac nodded in acknowledgment. "Follow me," he ordered Don and walked from his office.

Don looked at Danny, but didn't get any hints about where he was going. He followed Mac down the almost familiar halls of the lab before stopping in front of a nondescript, but secure, door. Mac tapped on it and, a minute later, it opened to reveal Sheldon Hawkes.

"I heard you found another one," Sheldon said, staring intently at Don. After another minute he turned and walked back down the small, dark corridor.

Don jumped slightly when Danny nudged him, but obediently followed. They passed another hall branching off before stopping in front of a door with the nameplate of "Sheldon Hawkes, Doctor of Temporal Physics" next to it.

Danny followed Sheldon into the office first while Don hesitated a second as he fought to regain control of his thoughts and emotions. Straightening his shoulders, he followed the two men, Mac just a step behind him. He hoped that he was finally going to get answers to his questions and his hands itched for his memopad so he could take notes.

"Where did you say he was from?" Sheldon asked Mac, once more staring intently at Don as if he could see through him to where he had come from.

"One of the Unknowns," Mac answered.

"How did he arrive?" Sheldon asked, sitting behind his desk and scribbling notes.

"Uncontrolled," Danny spoke up. "He was dazed when we found him."

"I can speak for myself," Don pointed out irritably. He didn't like the stiff formality of this Hawkes. He was too used to the one that always was in good humor, with a ready smile or arcane fact for his friends.

"Of course," Hawkes said, as if it hadn't even occurred to him to ask Don. "What was the travel like? Was it controlled?"

"No," Don said. "I thought I had walked off of a dock. I fell, expecting to land in the water. "

"Was it lit or dark?" Sheldon asked, not looking up from his notes.

"Dark. Like through a tunnel."

"Like Alice?" Danny grinned at him.

Don scowled, but couldn't help but see the point. "Sure," he agreed reluctantly and was rewarded with a bright grin from Danny. He smiled back just as wave of homesickness hit him. This man in front of him looked exactly like his Danny and acted like him, but he wasn't him. The differences were minor, but they were still there. He wanted his Danny and Mac, the ones that were truly his, more than anything else. "Tell me, Doc," he requested, "Can I get home again?"

Sheldon paused in his note taking, finally looking up. He peered at Don, blinking owlishly through his glasses, and looked over at Mac.

"It will depend greatly on the fields of the fog and how they intersect with your particular universe," he told Don seriously. "There are triggers built into the spacial matrix of every person that match the universe they're from. As they travel through the vortexes of --"

Don held up a hand, interrupting him. "In English please?" he requested.

"We think you can get home," Danny said. "But there are no guarantees."

"The Upalong will help you guide you between the parallel worlds," Mac said, taking over the explanation. "It, essentially, narrows down your landing sites from the worlds that you cannot be from. Each trip through the fog limits the places you can go."

"So I'll eventually get home," Don asked.

"Not necessarily," Sheldon said. "There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of parallel worlds. If the traveler has an Upalong, it will narrow down where you land, but each trip you take has the risk of you becoming permanently lost in the fog. You just keep falling, never finding your way to another world. It would be best if you simply chose a peaceful world and settled there."

"I'm going home," Don said stubbornly. He held up the Upalong. "How does this work?"

Sheldon looked startled when he saw the small, golden ball. "You're giving him one?" he asked Mac. "Are you sure?"

Mac nodded.

Sheldon scowled slightly. "We don't have many left. How are we supposed to study how the Fog works if you give them away? Can you trust him?"

Mac's own scowl was fierce when Sheldon questioned him. "Are you doubting my decision?"

"Of course not," Sheldon said, sitting back down and looking away.

Don looked between the two men in confusion. He looked over at Danny, who was standing calmly off to the side watching.

"The Upalong will help you get home," Sheldon told Don, not truly looking at him. "Eventually. Every trip you take ups your chances of getting lost and never finding your way out again."

"How do I not travel through it?" Don asked.

"Don't go out in it," Danny said. He smiled apologetically when Don glared at him.

"Seriously," he told Don. "Traveling through it like you did? That's rare. Almost unheard of. Ninety-eight percent of travelers have a ship or an Upalong to travel through the vortexes. It's extremely rare for someone from a universe that doesn't know how to harness the Fog to simply fall through it."

"A ship? Like a blue police box?" Don asked in amusement.

The three men stared at him blankly. "A what?" Hawkes asked.

"A police box. Like The Doctor .... never mind," Don said, waving a hand.

"Right," Sheldon said slowly. "The vortexes are like whirlpools, leading between the parallel universes and worlds and Upalong is a traveler's way of controlling the voyage."

"And this is an Upalong," he sighed. "What exactly does this thing do?" he asked, shaking it.

"Don't do that!" Sheldon said suddenly, flinching away.

"Why?"

"Because you could set it off and destroy this and a hundred other worlds," the doctor snapped. "Please, be careful with that."

"I could do that?" Don asked, staring at the small thing.

"Yes," Sheldon said. "Please, treat it with respect."

"How would that happen?"

"Isn't it enough to know that it can?" Danny asked. "If you want more, Dr. Hawkes' will get all technobabbly again."

"I do not get 'technobabbly,'" Hawkes said disdainfully.

"Is this safe?" Don asked uncertainly.

"It's fine," Mac said, just barely suppressing a sigh. "Dr. Hawkes is exaggerating the risk. Don't let it get hit by lightning and you should be fine."

"How does it work?"

"Simply?" Danny asked and Don nodded. "It'll glow gold when there's a Fog that you can travel in. If it glows red, do not go through it. I don't care what else is happening, don't travel through it."

"How?"

"For the most part, you have to be willing to travel through it," Mac told him. "Most people can walk through it and never notice the difference between this Fog and normal fog. If you can't, stay inside and out of it."

"What happens when I get home?" he whispered.

Mac took the ball and pointed to three small indentations. "Press here. That'll deactivate the Upalong after marking you as a non-Traveller. You'll never journey through it again."

"Just like that?"

Danny and Mac both gave him a single nod. "It also deactivates the Upalong," Mac told him. "You'll be the same, normal Don Flack that you always were. Fog will be nothing but a form of weather."

"What happens if it glows red?"

"That's one of the forbidden worlds," Danny said. "The ones that we or our allies know about and we know about most of them. They were guilty of trying to take over at least one other world and have been trapped there. Normally you can travel to one of many worlds though the Fog, but in that kind you go straight to the forbidden world. There is no return."

"How?"

"I don't want to sound 'technobabbly,'" Hawkes said, glancing over at Danny who smirked at him. "We've altered how the vortexes work around those worlds. Basically, we've turned them into one-way roads. You can travel down them, but there's no way to go in reverse and get away."

Don nodded, still staring at it. "This is a powerful thing?"

"Yep," Danny said. "There are a few worlds that would give anything to get a hold of one."

"Then why would you give this to me?" Don asked. "Aren't you worried about what I might do with it?"

Mac shook his head. "My job is to identify the threats from those of you just wanting to go home. I deal with the threats and help the others get back to where they belong."

"You've never made a mistake."

"Nope," Danny answered for him. "He's the best there is at this job." He smiled softly at Don as the ball started to glow a soft gold color. "Your fog's coming in."

"What do I do?" Don asked, staring at the ball as Mac opened the window. The Fog slowly started to creep into the room.

"Relax," Mac told him. "Don't let go of the Upalong."

"That's it?"

"That's it." Mac smiled, wondering briefly what it would have been like if the Don of his universe hadn't been killed as a child. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Don whispered and then he was falling. He took a deep breath, tightened his grip on the Upalong and closed his eyes, hoping to see his own home when he opened them again.

End/TBC


End file.
